Interesting news.

[Greyhound1]

Don't know how official this is or if it is purposeful misdirection for the up coming Christmas Special.

"As if the "Doctor Who" regeneration mystery couldn't get more difficult to follow, showrunner Steven Moffat is talking again -- and he's making matters even more confusing.


While speaking to the Radio Times, Moffat says that Matt Smith is the 13th and final Doctor, after counting John Hurt's War Doctor and David Tennant using up one of the regenerations during his stint.


That makes Smith regenerating into Peter Capaldi during the Christmas special a bit problematic, because the Doctor doesn't have any lives left. "The 12 regenerations limit is a central part of 'Doctor Who' mythology -- science fiction is all about rules, you can't just casually break them," Moffat says. How another Doctor will fit in there is anyone's guess.


According to the Radio Times, Smith's Doctor will give a speech about "dying" during the Christmas special. Perhaps if the Doctor dies after his final regeneration, and is brought back to life, he gets to start over from scratch?


Any other show could easily just ignore this sort of limitation, but Moffat won't stop talking about it, so he must have a pretty clever loophole to introduce Capaldi. It won't take long to find out exactly that that is, as the "Doctor Who" Christmas special airs at 9 p.m. ET Dec. 25 on BBC America."

This years Christmas ep looks to be shaping up to very interesting.

[Escher]

I've read a few spoilers on this and if they are accurate then it's a pretty ingenious plot. I wish I hadn't read them now as it will possibly spoil a few major surprises.

[da professor]

All I know is I WILL be watching on Xmas Day, and probably the repeat too

[misterharry]

Having read the first line only, I'm trying to avoid reading the opening post of this thread in case it contains spoilers for the Christmas episode. But as this is in the Game section, I'm not sure.

If it doesn't, would somebody mind saying so I don't have to hold back from reading it any more.
If it does, could the word SPOILERS be added to the thread title please.

[Rassilon]

Dec 11, 2013 10:02:11 GMT misterharry said:

Having read the first line only, I'm trying to avoid reading the opening post of this thread in case it contains spoilers for the Christmas episode. But as this is in the Game section, I'm not sure.

If it doesn't, would somebody mind saying so I don't have to hold back from reading it any more.
If it does, could the word SPOILERS be added to the thread title please.

There are no spoilers as it's what Moffat has reported in the Radio Times.

Moved to Series Chat.

[misterharry]

Thanks, Rassilon.

[Escher]

Basically, Moffat confirms that Tennant’s regeneration in The Stolen Earth was a Bona Fide use of one of his remaining regenerations, ending years of fan speculation.

Technically speaking, as incarnations:

McGann = 8th (title of The Eighth Doctor)

Hurt = 9th (Unnamed or title of The War Doctor)

Eccleston = 10th (title of The Ninth Doctor)

Tennant = 11th (title of The Tenth Doctor)

Tennant after 'The Stolen Earth' = 12th (title of The Tenth Doctor still, simply because he didn't change his appearance or personality)

Smith= 13th (title of The Eleventh Doctor)

[Curufea]

Didn't Moffat in another interview also confirm that River gave the Doctor her regenerations?

[Escher]

Dec 11, 2013 22:46:37 GMT Curufea said:

Didn't Moffat in another interview also confirm that River gave the Doctor her regenerations?

Who knows what he's on about. He also said there would be no classic Doctors taking part in any of the 50th stuff...
He's a master smokescreener.

[Ordovician]

Exactly. Rule One, the Doctor lies. Rule Two, Steven Moffat lies even more.

[Stormcrow]

"Rule one: the Doctor lies" is just Steven Moffat's way of saying he can't be bothered to come up with a plot more subtle than just hacking away at previous stories' content.

[misterharry]

Dec 11, 2013 22:46:37 GMT Curufea said:

Didn't Moffat in another interview also confirm that River gave the Doctor her regenerations?

I don't think I've read the interview you mention. But I've never taken it that the Doctor gained the regenerations that River gave up to save his life in Let's Kill Hitler. I've always assumed that she used the energy of her unused regenerations to somehow counteract the poison.

[ninjaconor]

I'm predicting that the Doctor won't have enough energy left to regenerate after all that magic hand faffery and healing River's wrist, so he will temporarily become the Valeyard (in the time between his twelfth and thirteenth incarnation, as mentioned in Trial of a Timelord) and go on a ruthless quest to get more lives, which is the terrible event that the Silence have been trying to stop.

[Curufea]

That sounds like a really cool plot idea!

[Eryx]

That would be a cool story element.

[ersatz]

Moffat is very clever, more so than many people give him credit for. He explains things, but often not directly. Anyway, I don't worry about the regeneration limit; it was established as being breakable in the first story it was mentioned in.